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 "13 Reasons Why" is a popular series on Netflix that depicts the suicide of a teenager. The popularity of this show indicates it has struck a societal chord. If your district is similar to mine you’ve noticed the disturbing uptick in teen suicide and suicide attempts. Hopefully, your year will be free of such tragedy, but I’ve already had to address one such scenario and so wanted to touch on how our school and myself have processed the situation.
Suicide is something that impacted my family when my sister killed herself at 16. To this day, 20 years later, that event impacts me and my family. I wasn’t prepared for the emotional turmoil that ensued when a student of mine returned from an attempt. In talking to that student upon his/her return the tone I was projecting was one of anger. I quickly realized I needed to shut my mouth and let the counselor take the lead. After a brief reentry meeting we talked to the staff and went over some crisis management steps so we were all on the same page. These 3 action steps are good to review with staff when dealing with a student who has made an attempt on her/his life. It’s always real Take the threat seriously and do not leave the child alone. Often we question ourselves whether or not the student is serious about their comment. Sometimes the student making the remarks is one who constantly seeks attention in any number of different ways. This could lead to second guessing because you don’t want to disrupt your day or feed into the child’s attention seeking. Regardless of your personal discomfort you must follow up. Support, support, support Find a private space and talk with the student reassuring him/her that you care about them. This can be emotionally taxing. The student can be in extreme emotional pain and as a principal you aren’t necessarily trained to handle a child in this type of crisis. That’s why it’s important to make sure that you have your school counselor or social worker available and taking the lead. Get a buddy Make sure that there are at least two adults with the student whenever possible. It might be necessary to physically restrain a student or to be a witness. Having two staff members with the student is ideal if a witness is needed for any reason. Two adults ensuring the student is safe until they can be handed them off to professionals or parents will also keep the staff safe. Supporting students in crisis is one of the most fulfilling roles of the principal. It is also one of the most emotionally draining. Having protocols in place and reviewing them with your staff, prior to a student’s return, helps relieve staff anxiety and get everyone on the same page. What are other protocols your school implements in this type of crisis? Share your tips in the comment section below. If you found this entertaining, educational or cause for reflection please follow me and share with your friends. For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my blog at the www.howtobeagreatprincpal.com and/or order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. You can also get a monthly email that delivers the most valuable blogs, as voted by readers, by joining the Principals’ Prep Minute. You can register right on the website. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, on itunes and podomatic, episodes replayed weekly. If you’re interested in sharing your experience as an edleader please email me at jonathanroyce@theprincipalentrepreneur.com. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group. #theprincipalentrepreneur #leadership #principal #secondaryprincipals #nassp #massp #maesp #edchat #educhat #edadmin #sharedleadership #howtobeagreatprincipal #jonathanroyce
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 No matter how good we are or how generous, there is always going to be a percentage of staff that doesn’t like how we lead. There might not be an active dislike but they may not completely trust us. I was recently reading an an article at bloomberg.com called: Americans Can't Stand Their Bosses, and Bosses Admit They're Phoning it in, which makes the claim that at least half of the American workforce has quit their job to get away from a bad boss. While we know we’re not bad, the following three steps are easy tips to build connections and lower that percentage of staff that just seems to be automatically resistant to our leadership style. In doing so we can avoid staff turnover and cultural instability in our schools.
Say my name, say my name For some reason humans inherently like the sound of their own name. It’s important that we use staff members names when addressing them. It’s a simple strategy that can build a lot of relationship equity. Calling our teachers by name in staff meetings and providing them opportunities to express opinions in areas of alignment is a good way to soften overall tensions. Back to life, back to reality The life of an educator is unquestioningly overwhelming and time consuming. Treating our staff as if education is their life and expecting them to treat it as such is a recipe for both subtle and active resistance. Learn something about their lives outside of the four walls of the classroom. Invite ways for them to bring their outside passions into the building. Once you do so, bring those up in conversation or send them an email with a link that they may find interesting. Find multiple ways to integrate their passions into your school culture. Addressing all parts of the person is a great way to build credibility and rapport. Say you, say me, say it together This idea goes back to them having a life. Once you learn more about them you may find that you actually have things in common. One of the ways people connect is by belonging to the same “tribe”. Being fans of the same team being interested in entrepreneurship, or wellness or ways to connect. Finding commonalities is a great strategy in bringing someone over to your side of the fence. Unfortunately, there is always going to be a small number of staff members that isn’t going to like us. This is when getting a thicker skin is necessary. However, shrinking this percentage by addressing these staff members by name, treating them like they have a life and bonding over similarities are three strategies that will help tip the balance in our favour. What are some other strategies you use to help staff members “buy-in”? Share your tips in the comment section below. If you found this entertaining, educational or cause for reflection please follow me and share with your friends. For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my other blogs and/or order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. You can also get a monthly email that delivers the most valuable blogs, as voted by readers, by joining the Principals’ Prep Minute. You can register right on the website. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, on itunes and podomatic, episodes replayed weekly. If you’re interested in sharing your experience as an edleader please email me at jonathanroyce@theprincipalentrepreneur.com. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group.  As I’ve become more comfortable in my role as principal and observe the other principals in my district and read about principal exploits on Facebook, the areas of influence we occupy are occasionally unique. It seems to me that as a principal we are primarily brought in to do one of two things: keep things on an even keel or bring about dramatic change. In order to accomplish our own goals within one of these two frameworks we must be able to influence our staff. From the beginning of our tenure there are three types of power that need to be interwoven in order to set our agenda.
Access to Decision Makers As a principal we must have an easy entry point into our central administration. From this position we can begin to network and create connections. It’s through leveraging these relationships that we are able to ask for the things that we need to run our buildings. Just like in business our network is our net-worth. In education net-worth equates to resources as simple as textbooks to grant funding for the Robotics’ Club. The power of access is what gives us a means to gain what we need to support our agendas. By creating good relationships we have the power to influence the allocation of resources. Social Capital Like a news anchor is the face of a local channel or a Youtube star, we are the face of the school. With that visibility comes a platform from which we can highlight our school’s successes. For good or ill, in most cases, we are the people that come to mind when a parent or community member thinks of our school. From for our positions as principal we have the power and the responsibility to do what is best for all the children. How we present that vision to all stakeholders is important. Through constant and appropriate visibility we have the power to influence the image of our schools. Staff Culture This is perhaps the greatest power we have as principal. As an evaluator it’s our job to impact good teaching. It’s also the position in which we can save the most children. By evaluating a poor teacher out we have the power to positively impact a generation of children. Not surprisingly this is the power that is the most difficult to wield. Even today with teachers no longer having tenure the hoops and the paperwork that must be done to remove a poor teacher is difficult to manage. As a principal it’s necessary. The evaluative process is the superpower of the principal and we can use it to shape our staff. These three spheres of influence: access to decision makers, social capital, staff culture can help us shape, support and promote our school vision. Whart are other areas of influence that we have? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. If you found this entertaining, educational or cause for reflection please follow me and share with your friends. For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my blog at the www.howtobeagreatprincpal.com and/or order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. You can also get a monthly email that delivers the most valuable blogs, as voted by readers, by joining the Principals’ Prep Minute. You can register right on the website. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, on itunes and podomatic, episodes replayed weekly. If you’re interested in sharing your experience as an edleader please email me at jonathanroyce@theprincipalentrepreneur.com. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group. #theprincipalentrepreneur #leadership #principal #secondaryprincipals #nassp #massp #maesp #edchat #educhat #edadmin #sharedleadership #howtobeagreatprincipal #jonathanroyce  I was recently reading a Facebook post where a group member mentioned having a “thin skin”. Although most people would think that I don’t have one it’s because I’ve had years of training burying reactions before they reach my face. The reason for this is because I was one of only maybe two black kids in an all white town and there were periods of intense discomfort and emotional pain. If you let that pain show “they” won. Those experiences have built a callous over my visible display of emotions. This isn’t always a good thing as displaying emotion, even positive emotion isn’t necessarily an automatic response. However, when it comes to parents taking verbal shots it is a good skill to have. The following three strategies can be used to “thicken” your skin.
Self-Talk I had an episode where two children had been in an altercation. One of the students was suspended for a period of days. The mother disagreed with the suspension, and she brought her brother in and he asked what I would do if he slapped me in the face. I was also called all sorts of names. I reminded myself that I was in control and that I had all the power. They needed me. I didn’t need them. In using this self-talk I was able to regulate my brain state and recalibrate my body’s chemical reaction. Reminding yourself that you’re the principal is a great way to reduce the number of times you take things personally Internal Clock The idea of counting to ten has some basis in science. If you actually give yourself time you can begin to eliminate the immediate chemical reaction you have to someone talking shit about you. In the book The Leading Brain, the authors talk about how your brain actually has the same physiological response to social discomfort as to real physical pain. By giving your body time to reset your prefrontal cortex has an opportunity to regain dominance. By allowing your body to do it’s thing and reset and stacking that on top of positive self talk you are less likely to take things personally for an extended period of time. I don’t know if there are people who are predisposed to not take things personally. I do know that these strategies work well enough for me to not carry personal attacks for longer than a few minutes. Self-talk, reminding yourself that you’re in control and monitoring your internal clock and giving yourself time to recalibrate are both useful methods in appearing to have a thick skin. What are other strategies you use to avoid having thin skin? Share your techniques in the comment section below. If you found this entertaining, educational or cause for reflection please follow me and share with your friends. For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my blog at the www.howtobeagreatprincpal.com and/or order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. You can also get a monthly email that delivers the most valuable blogs, as voted by readers, by joining the Principals’ Prep Minute. You can register right on the website. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, on itunes and podomatic, episodes replayed weekly. If you’re interested in sharing your experience as an edleader please email me at jonathanroyce@theprincipalentrepreneur.com. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group.  I’m continuing to learn about the brain and how as a principal I can use science to be a more effective leader. Depending on your situation, as the principal, we’re tasked with maintaining the status quo, or we’re brought in to “turn around” a school. Maintaining the status quo typically means don’t rock the boat with too many new ideas. A turn around usually means radical change. In either scenario, wheter radical or gradual change happens.
Last school year I tried to institute change as minor (to me) as switching a teacher's room to what many teachers considered a more radical change, a move away from punitive discipline. I came up against resistance in both instances. In reading The Leading Brain by Hans W. Hangemann and Freiderike Fabritius, and The Education Revolution: How to Apply Brain Science to Improve Instruction and School Climate by Horacio Sanches as well as listening to various podcasts, I’ve learned about brain based reasons for the resistance. The following are a few building blocks that can be put in place to help get staff ready for change. Once upon a time. One of our jobs is to introduce a vision to our staff. The best way to do this is to tell a story around the vision. Literally describe in detail what the school will become if we work towards the vision. This is the time to weave in hard facts about what has been and how those outcomes aren’t as good as they should be. The data doesn’t lie, but it can be misinterpreted. Use multiple data points to help show the need for change and to support your narrative. The reason the narrative is important is because the brain does some remarkable things when it is engaged with a story. Raymond Mar a Canadadian psychologist looked at 86 mri studies and concluded that there’s a dovetail between how the brain networks understand stories and how it navigates interactions with others. Which means the brain has an opportunity to “live” something before it actually happens, making it easier to introduce something new. There it is again A constant flow of communication surrounding the change is necessary. At every opportunity speak about the change and why it’s necessary and how it’s really not that different to something you’re already doing. Use staff meetings, community newsletters and your social media outreach to prepare your community. Humans’ chemical reaction to change is similar to that of being startled, in such a state there is limited use of the thinking part of the the brain. Don’t rush into the change and provide some time for stakeholders to wrap their minds around it. Sanches states that,”making associations to things people know well is least taxing to the human brain and is most likely to be understood” (p. 29). By connecting the change to concepts the staff is familiar with there is a far greater chance of acceptance. In addition the brain is less likely to react with fear. Communication over time and connections to past practices are essential components of preparing staff for change. Socialization As the Principal you already know that collaboration or socialization is important. Identify those key influencers on your staff and encourage their input. Use your student governing body to help spread the word and get those students on board. Give an end goal that you would like and have them come up with the means to get there. Having them participate and lead the way will help the other staff and students buy in. Collaboration isn’t just common sense. It’s also hardwired into the human brain. Studies have shown that the brain works better when involved with a group. We’re social creatures and working together is what has helped us build civilizations. Oscar Ybarra from the University of Michigan noted, “the positive relationship between social engagement and cognitive performance.” Again, activating the prefrontal cortex is ideal when introducing change. The more people involved functioning at a high level the less effort we have to put forth and the greater the chance of success. When introducing change it’s important to do so within a larger narrative creating a story in order to activate different regions of the brain. In addition repeating ideas frequently and collaborating are both activities that stimulate the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is responsible for higher order thinking, and can help smooth transitions from the old to the new. What are some other techniques that can be used to introduce change? Share your experience in the comment section below. If you found this entertaining, educational or cause for reflection please follow me and share with your friends. For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my blog at the www.howtobeagreatprincpal.com and/or order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. You can also get a monthly email that delivers the most valuable blogs, as voted by readers, by joining the Principals’ Prep Minute. You can register right on the website. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, on itunes and podomatic, episodes replayed weekly. If you’re interested in sharing your experience as an edleader please email me at jonathanroyce@theprincipalentrepreneur.com. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group. #theprincipalentrepreneur #leadership #principal #secondaryprincipals #nassp #massp #maesp #edchat #educhat #edadmin #sharedleadership #howtobeagreatprincipal #jonathanroyce  We know we’re going to have to have staff meetings. We know these staff meetings are usually once a month at the least and once a week at the most. Often times these can prove burdensome especially as things pile up throughout the school year. However, these meetings can also be a perfect opportunity to demonstrate our leadership skills. The question I ask myself is: how can I use this meeting to support the vision, empower the staff, and create confidence in my leadership skills? The following are six ways I’ve found to highlight my leadership competencies. If I do these six things right the staff walks away thinking that they’re in a great place.
Pre planning, it works When you have planned meetings, on your calendar, include an extra five minutes in that time block. Use that five minutes to prep for your meeting. This extra five minutes alone will cut down on the time you spend in your meeting. You can use that time to choose your goal, gather your materials and get your thoughts together. Too often we’re running from one meeting to the next and a lot of time is wasted trying to get everything situated. If these are set meetings you also wanted to make sure that the team you are meeting with is also ready to go when they come in the room. Everyone being prepared will help ensure that the meetings do not run over. Back in the day Think back to your time in the classroom. Each meeting you have should have it’s own process. Everyone should know what to expect. These norms should be set in the first meeting. If you are working with data your should have a routine that you consistently use to dig into that information. You don’t want to spend time each meeting figuring out the how. Having a set routine will help eliminate wasted time. The one thing For each specific meeting have one main goal that you would like to accomplish for that particular session. Walking into a meeting without a clear vision of the outcome you would like will lead to discussions with no ending in sight. You can easily get off task with any number of issues that are seen as important. In order to limit the time of the meeting have a clearly stated goal on your agenda. In doing so, you have one lense that can filter out the extraneous conversations. Cliff Hanger This isn’t an easy thing to accomplish. Having only two or three things on the agenda that support the main goal makes this more attainable. With just a few action items staff can anticipate leaving in a timely manner. You also have the opportunity to delve more deeply into a subject. When this happens and you choose to end the discussion the staff will look forward to the next meeting. Just like the next season of The Game of Thrones. :-) I’m always happy when a meeting I have to attend manages to end early. I know the staff likes it too. The more the merrier As the leader of the staff meeting it is important to set the agenda and begin the conversation. It is even more important to be a facilitator in the meeting. After you present the topic, a great idea is to sit back and let everyone else have a voice. Make sure to ask those who are sitting quietly if they’d like to contribute. Usually you have a few people who always dominate the conversation. As the principal you must make sure to guide the discussion and ask good questions. Make sure to get input from your introverts as they often have great ideas. The emperor has no clothes! Rarely is the truth simple and everyone’s truth is different. However, a meeting in which multiple perspectives are raised, and received knowing kind intent, is one worth having. These are the meetings we leave feeling purposeful and connected. Like a subtle spice in your favorite dish, meetings of this kind are rare. They’re often unexpected and hard to come by but these are the meetings in which the entire staff grows. I continue to work steadily to create a culture where staff meetings like this can happen. Staff meetings are necessary and mandated by contracts. They don’t have to be boring or repetitive. They can be an opportunity to demonstrate your leadership skills. Remember to pre plan, make meetings shorter than announced, include as many as you can in the conversation, be transparent, have only two or three action steps and one goal. If you can manage to incorporate these six techniques your staff will, if not look forward to, at least come to meetings with open minds. How do you get the most out of your staff meetings? Share the techniques that work for you in the comments section below. If you found this entertaining, educational or cause for reflection please follow me and share with your friends. For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my blog at the www.howtobeagreatprincpal.com and/or order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. You can also get a monthly email that delivers the most valuable blogs, as voted by readers, by joining the Principals’ Prep Minute. You can register right on the website. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, on itunes and podomatic, episodes replayed weekly. If you’re interested in sharing your experience as an edleader please email me at jonathanroyce@theprincipalentrepreneur.com. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group. #theprincipalentrepreneur #leadership #principal #secondaryprincipals #nassp #massp #maesp #edchat #educhat #edadmin #sharedleadership #howtobeagreatprincipal #jonathanroyce  I have recently been studying up on brain based learning as our school begins to learn about trauma and trauma informed teaching. I’ve been reading The Education Revolution: How to Apply Brain Science to Improve Instruction and School Climate by Horacio Sanchez. Part of my learning process is trying to relate what I’m reading to my current position as principal. With staff meetings and meetings in general taking up a lot of my time it seems to make sense to analyze meetings and see if brain based strategies can create a more impactful and effective staff meeting. As I reflected, I realized that sometimes I use these 3 brain based strategies but without the intentionality that could make the meeting a better opportunity for staff learning.
Routines and Sequencing The brain can do higher order thinking once it has foundational knowledge grounded in long term memory. Horatio states “The ability to identify core information is the foundation of advanced learning” (p. 24). For that reason starting each staff meeting the same and having it follow the same general format is a great way to help staff be ready to dig into the complex issue you wish to present. Take a look at your agenda you’ll see that in general you probably have the same general sequence. You probably didn’t even think about it but did it instinctively. If you happen to see large variations, moving forward try to bring your agendas into alignment. If your staff’s brains aren’t trying to figure out what is going on they can more easily process information. Home Cookin’ If you close your eyes and imagine your favorite dinner. More than likely it’s something from your childhood, something you ate when you felt safe and loved. The same idea applies to staff meetings. Find ways to create a relaxed environment. One of the norms for our meetings is to provide snacks. :-) We try to make these “healthy” but sometimes after a tough day Doritos and Fritos go more quickly than the pears and carrots. Horatio explains that, “optimal brain functioning occurs when chemical secretions in the brain are in balance. . “(p. 5). This is why when we feel safe learning is easier. Before budget cuts most staff meetings had some sort of snack. It’s in our best interests as a principals to create as much comfort as possible in a meeting. This is a brain based strategy that most of us typically employ. Kudos, Kudos for everyone Kudos are an acknowledgement for a job well done. I usually being staff meetings with these because it’s a great way to relieve stress, get people to laugh and reconnect with the positive things being done. I find these especially valuable after a tough day or week. I didn’t realize that this was also good science. Horatio explains that, “when you laugh, the brain secretes hormones that not only relax us but also allow us to be open to new ideas” (p. 11). I just wanted to break up the negativity that staff can often fall victim to. Starting with kudos creates a positive momentum that makes it easier to get through an agenda. Staff meetings can sometimes feel like a necessary evil. By intentionally employing these brain based strategies to start a staff meeting I’m hoping to have staff meetings that are impactful. Having routines and sequences, creating a comfortable environment and beginning with kudos are three brain based strategies that can be used in every meeting. What are other brain based strategies you use to run a great meeting. Share your knowledge with your colleagues in the comment section below. If you found this entertaining, educational or cause for reflection please follow me and share with your friends. For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my blog at the www.howtobeagreatprincpal.com and/or order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. You can also get a monthly email that delivers the most valuable blogs, as voted by readers, by joining the Principals’ Prep Minute. You can register right on the website. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, on itunes and podomatic, episodes replayed weekly. If you’re interested in sharing your experience as an edleader please email me at jonathanroyce@theprincipalentrepreneur.com. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group. #theprincipalentrepreneur #leadership #principal #secondaryprincipals #nassp #massp #maesp #edchat #educhat #edadmin #sharedleadership #howtobeagreatprincipal #jonathanroyce |
AuthorI'm a Principal and an Entrepreneur. I'm an owner of a new food venture Hustling Hoagies, the author of the children's picture books Detective Dwayne Drake and the Alphabet Thief, Detective Dwayne Drake and The Case of the Mathematical Misfit and the ebook Making it as a Male Model in Michigan. I've worked professionally as a model and commercial actor...... Archives
August 2018
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